CATFISH SANDWICH AND A STRAWBERRY MOON PIE

Sometimes God will open a door for a brief moment and give us a opportunity to do his will. It is very easy to miss if you are not listening for his voice. This last week on mission trip was one of those times. We saw an old woman come out onto the porch of a home that we just knew was condemned. Talk about shocked ! Human nature is to do the look away and move on, but we felt called to see what God had in mind. We were able to find out that she was if fact renting this dump so we with CTCYM couldn't ever work on the house. Time for another look away. We kept after it and found that the owner of the house was also the building inspector in this tiny Mississippi town, WOW. We were actually able to negotiate a price ($2000) and buy the home for this woman. We were so busy with mission trip we were not even able to tell the woman that she now owns her home.
To be present at such a miracle is a true blessing! To buy a home in 2 days is not of this earth, and if you don't believe that try it some time.
We get nudges from God from time to time. They are easy to miss. If we are paying attention He will walk with us every day. He just wants for us to take his hand and walk with him, he will do all of the heavy lifting. If we had done the look away how long would it be before God tried again? 6 months, a year? Be present and open to Gods call, it is faint at times but always there. I think that it is so cool that we got to walk with him like that last week. I try to live for that at all times and it seems to get easier every day. Thanks God that he is present with us like this, and thank God that I am able to notice. Try to notice !
p.s. If you are ever in Beulah Mississippi go to the quick stop and have a catfish sandwich and a strawberry moon pie! And try not to bite your fingers.

ALOT OF PEOPLE CONFUSE GOD WITH THE CHURCH AND WALK AWAY FROM THEM BOTH

That is such a true statement. And it really makes me think. The true representation of the Kingdom on earth should be found inside our church's, but is it ? When someone comes seeking the Kingdom of God they logically end up in a Church. Have you ever notice people who show up for three or four weeks and then disappear? Where did they go, or worse yet what did they see, or hear?
I saw a video a while back where they were interviewing Satan, and the one thing that really stuck out was when Satan said " you haven't lived until you've seen two deacons dog cussing each other in the hall. That is almost humorous unless you have seen that or something like that happen. It does happen and I have seen it more than once. I think we get so wrapped up in what we think is important and forget what is truly important. Think about trying to explain those actions on judgement day ! WOW !
Try to remember these thing as you interact with your fellow Christians, don't think you can just flip a switch on and off at your whim and ACT christian or not. Believe we will answer for these action at some point, especially when dealing with a new Christian. Don't let your actions run someone away from God. It would be better to loose an eye than your whole body!

NEWSLETTER #1 REVISITING 2008

What happened? 2008 has been an amazing journey. Christ has been very faithful in the big things, and in big ways. We thought we would give away some cars to relieve some pain. What a desperate place to be, without transportation, often with children, often with no employment or underemployment. We just wanted to show Christ love in a real way to the desperate, lonely, left behind and forgotten. Few of us can truly relate, thank God for that! I often thought I had lost my mind, if I really stop and think about it maybe I have. Good thing I don't often stop and think for long. God has set us all on this path, all we are called to do is follow. And when you follow God is faithful.We ended up giving away 12 cars ? How did that happen ? It was through the generosity of you guys. Christ has called us all to this thing called Faith, simply have faith that he is the Son. And all of you have done that in aces ! Not only did we give away 12 cars but I would proudly drive any one of them. The cars just seemed to get nicer and nicer. We are not rolling in money by any stretch of the imagination, but we never, ever, ever fell short or were unable to do what was in front of us to do. Thank you all and God bless you. We had single mothers, drug rehabs, homeless rehabs, and working poor. One single mother with 5 children was walking over to the hospital district at night, one single mother with three was walking to Subway to work because it was the only place close enough to walk to for work, one woman was a victim of domestic violence in Mississippi who fled here with nothing, and I mean nothing. The stories go on and on.We started the Community garden in memory of Margret's dad. It should be ready to plant in a few weeks. We have managed 10 planting beds that are 6 x 16 ft, fenced one side, cleared the trees, brought in dirt and leveled the lot, dug a fire pit to share with the boy scouts, and are in the process of building community. It is on a 1/2 acre lot behind University United Methodist Church.The web site looks amazing. Thanks to Patrick. He must be some kind of genius. Please go check it out because we really update often, and everything we are doing is there or will be soon. We have photo's of all of the recipients, videos of some of the presentations, all of the financials etc, etc.So in summary God is AWESOME, all of ya'll are AWESOME. Project-44 is rockin' along much better than we could have ever imagined, and it is because of YOU ! Please continue to pray for us, and please go register on the website. May Gods Light Shine All Over You Now And Always

ELEMENTAL FIRE

It has been enlightening to find that God wants for us to find the gifts he has giving us and utilize them for the kingdom. So many times you will agree to sit on a committee or whatever out of duty but, not necessarily because you have a gift in that area. Think about it, if you look and pray about what you truly love and are gifted at then you will be more productive in that area. I think we quiet often waste talent and risk burn out by not working where God has gifted us. Every area of life and or business are needed in Kingdom work. If you can just ask God to show you how to work your talents and gifts to the glory of his Kingdom you might be surprised. I personnally am a grease monkey by trade and it just lately occured to me that my true passion could be used in Kingdom work. The results have been amazing. I can tell for sure, for once in my life that I am doing exactly what God would have me do. I used to would try to find some unobtrusive place to fit in to whatever was happening at the church and was quite often frustrated with the whole prosess. I was out of my element and not as affective as I could be. With this passion comes a new fire for Christ and a closer kinship with the Holy Spirit, so I highly recomend it. Pray for your passions and gifts, pray the God will us them to the glory of the Kingdom of God. Try spreading the love of our Lord and Savior- IN YOUR ELEMENT. He wouldn't have it any other way.

2008 AND CAR MINISTRY

2008 Has been an amazing year. It is humbling to be allowed by God to be his hands and feet like this. We randomly set a goal of 10 cars for the year and ended up giving away 12 ! Go figure ! When you decide to give away free cars it seems like you may have lost your mind but it is what God has asked us to do and He has our back in a BIG BIG way. We started working on getting our 501 c3 non-profit status and after 6-8 months realized it is normally an 18 month process, we received our official status on December 11, 2008 after only 9 months.
It has been a wonderful experience to help people like this . To see the faces of a family who are in a difficult situation receive a free car is great. I advise everyone to find time to come to a presentation at least once in 2009. Our goal this year is 30 cars ! So please be praying for us ! Also go register on the web site so you can keep up with what is happening. Thank all of you for your continued support and prayers. God Bless you and keep you and your in this new year.